by Pari
(Hey all, I just noticed that Cornelia posted yesterday; it’s right below this one. It’s a goodbye post. Please don’t miss it.)
Can this really be happening? After nearly one and a half weeks off, I’m going back to work tomorrow? Holy crap!
It seemed like an eternity in the abstract. Hours and hours of only ME time in which I could get so much accomplished . . .
Clean the house — So far, I’ve managed to clear enough space on the floor in my office that I can finally get around the boxes. I also got rid of several bags worth of recyclable paper and plastic. Cleaned a closet or two. Swept up and dusted enough dirt to fill at least one of the raised beds I meant to build during this vacation.
Write — I meant to edit all the work I’ve written since I started this writing-every-day thing more than 18 months ago. While I continued to write daily, I didn’t even look at any of my past work yet. Crapsticks. I’ve got two – three novels, a novella, at least six short stories . . . and I go to work again tomorrow? Crapsticks x 2!
Organize — What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway? Get little pouches and fill them with coupons? Put my bills somewhere where I’ll pay more attention to them? Figure out what to do with the kids’ artwork? Get rid of things I’m not using. Lose some of the things that have been dragging me down?
Speaking of . . .
Lose Weight — yeah, right.
Here’s what I did do:
Had some really wonderful conversations with friends.
Eat all kinds of special foods that I won’t eat again for a year — hard salami w/guyere cheese, sticky pecan holiday bread from my favorite local bakery, pate and cornichons, champagne . . .
Sleep.
Sleep.
Sleep.
Stay up until one every night streaming foreign films.
Sleep in.
Enjoy being by myself for hours on end.
Think about my life and what I want to do in the coming years . . .
I may not have accomplished even a fraction of what I meant to do, but I certainly did accmomplish a lot.
How about you? What did you do for the holidays? Did you get a vacation? Did you have some down time?
I’d love to know . . . and I’m off today so I can actually respond more than I’ll be able to tomorrow. So send a note my way.
Oh! And Happy New Year! May you be blessed with everything you hope for this year.
Your vacation sounds like mine, except for the cleaning (I did buy two huge portfolio folders for the kids' artwork, though) and having to go in to work between Christmas and New Year's. And coming down with two separate viruses a week apart, which was just adding insult to ick.
But I did get two naps in—extra gifts from my husband! And I did get some decent writing done, I think. Plus, I decided that 2011 was a pretty good year—don't always get to say that. Good feeling.
Today, I'm hoping to watch the new ep of Sherlock through the generosity of a friend. If that doesn't work out, I will console myself with watching "The Princess and the Frog" and eating popcorn all over the living room with my four-year old, while her older sister is in school. Either way, It's going to be a good day.
Happy New Year, Pari!
I've been on vacation since he beginning of December. Actually, that was officially, because I pretty much didn't have anything to do since mid November. And will be off school until February 27th.
Yup, that's right. So far I've watched two and a half seasons of Desperate Housewives, read two books, wrote, shopped and did all the Chrismassy things, cooked, played A LOT with little sister, went out to eat a million times, have been to the mall a million times, too, have been sick and stuff. And slept. A freakin' lot! Best part, I still have two more months to do whatever I want, whenever I want.
I know, I'm very blessed!!! 🙂
Hi Pari
I've always said sleep is very overrated, but I've been doing quite a bit of it over the holiday, having been lurgified since just before Christmas. I've been trying to untangle the plot for my latest WIP, and keep up with tweets (otherwise they become this unmanagable monster) but other than that everything has been let slide a little.
Still, today is the last day of the break, so I'm slowly getting back into gear, trying to catch up on some interviews, reviews, and other stuff I should have got out of the way. Not to mention the emails that have been piling up, Plus the accounts, and taking the decorations down (yeah, I know it's early, but the holiday's over and I want to get stuck into January without being pulled back to December), and, and, and …
OK, I'll stop there. One of my ambitions for this year is not to set myself targets I have no chance of achieving …
Happy New Year to you, Pari. Let's hope for great things in 2012 – and that you bring that novella, short stories and novels to your eager readers.
Happy New Year, Pari! We never travel at Christmas, so I've been at home enjoying the farm and the crazy warm weather we had. Have been having wonderful rides on my Big Bay and doing some marketing experimentation with the books. A week went by since I did any cleaning and yesterday I noticed the floor needs vacuuming terribly – but I am just too busy enjoying things to do it!! 🙂
I am enjoying your word count posts on FB. Each one brings a smile and some inspiration to me. Thank you for sharing them and the very happiest of New Year's to you!!
I already blogged about my big holiday achievement: I watched all existing episodes of THE WALKING DEAD, SHERLOCK, and SURVIVORS, and the first three seasons of WIRE IN THE BLOOD. Nothing really tops that, but now that I'm tallying it up I did get an amazing bunch of stuff done in December.
I cleaned, organized and got several rooms of my Mom's house painted, and if anyone has ever tried something similar with a parent, you KNOW what I'm talking about….
I wrote 175 pages of my new paranormal, pretty impressive – I don't actually know how that happened. And the most amazing thing is that if I get through what I think I can do today, I'll also have a new draft of my thriller which might actually bear some resemblance to an actual book.
AND – I started wearing more colors, a lot more, which must mean something good.
Sarah,
Today will be a prep day for back to school and back to work. I hope we can finish early enough to be able to chill a little more. I started the morn with an anxiety dream . . . argh.
Barbie,
I hope you enjoy every single moment of that time off!
Zoë,
Thank you for the wishes. I think your goal, if attainable, is wonderful. It's a delicate balance though, isn't it? Pushing ourselves with ambitious goals and shoving ourselves under the bus with the same . . .
Billie,
Thank you so much. I'm glad you've had a relaxing time. Housecleaning is definitely overrated. However, I need to start bringing some order into my life for my sense of well being. It's been too scattered this year and I now need to focus in more ways than one.
Thanks also for the comment about the word count. If that's your response to it, then it's doing exactly what I want it to do.
Alex,
My mouth hit the floor at the end of your second paragraph; I think it will never close again after reading the third.
Congrats! And, yes, I do think wearing more colors is a very good sign.
I discovered a couple of friends didn't know I had.
Beautiful, Reine!
Hi Pari, Happy New Year to all!!
Pari, I always think after reading your posts that you are far more productive, creative, and amazing than you give yourself credit for. 🙂
My husband and I had a wonderful Christmas at the Oregon Coast, no kids, just time to focus on the two of us. We celebrated with the kids when we got back, and that was good too –
New Years, we didn't do much but watch movies and sleep a lot. Did a lot of reading. Yesterday, we worked out our budget for the year, which is quite an accomplishment for a still fairly newly married couple (1.5 years) who each have our own kids.
I also got caught up over the holidays with writing Amazon reviews for people I'd promised to do that for. Phew.
New year's resolutions – to write more, eat healthier, sell my fricking albatross townhouse which is killing us, and save some money (might be impossible considering the townhouse).
Reine – awesome to find friends you didn't know you had. I always appreciate your comments here. 🙂
Cheers to all!
Jenni
Hi Jenni, and thank you, and ditto. xo
In addition to putting in hours at my "day" job, I completed three rounds of edits with the wonderful Charlotte Herscher for CROSSCUT, the second Nicholas Colt thriller, and I wrote over 10K new words for Colt #3. In other words, business as usual. Happy New Year everyone!
It seems you are surrounded by fresh air and energy. 2012 is going to be a wowzer for you!
Pari: Sorry for the late entry. I've been jamming on a deadline all 'vacation," which is one reason I missed your post yesterday. I'm so glad you got some down time, and I hope the foreign films you got were grand. I have Through a Glass darkly here from Netflix and just couldn't pull the trigger over the holidays. Never seen it, very much want to, but have to choose my moment.
No need to reply. Hope the return to work wasn't brutal. Happy New year!
Jenni, I'm so glad you had a good vacation. And thank you for that vote of confidence. Also, thank you for the comment on my post last week. I read it after I'd disabled the comments but very much appreciated the sentiment/book title.
Jude, I stand in awe. Actually, I'm sitting in awe . . . but you get the idea. Wowie.
Judy, merci beaucoup. Let's hope it's a wonderful year for us both!
David, the return to work was exhausting but fun. I really do like my job very much; I know I'm fortunate. Good luck in the deadline!